Page 50 - Uttarakhand

NDRF, SDRF looking after Joshimath issue: Uttarakhand govt to Delhi HC

This comes after a plea was moved to the HC requesting that the Centre establish a high-powered joint committee to investigate the sinking of the Joshimath

Home Minister Amit Shah holds meeting on Uttarakhand's Joshimath crisis

Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, BRO and NDRF officials also participated

Joshimath crisis: People will get the best compensation possible, says CM

Dhami said the interim assistance would reach the bank accounts of the families affected by this evening or Friday

Geophysical scientists from Hyderabad to study land subsidence in Joshimath

A team of experts from CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) will be leaving for Joshimath in Uttarakhand, which witnessed land subsidence recently, to conduct subsurface physical mapping of the affected town, a senior scientist has said. The 10-member team headed by Anand K Pandey is expected to reach the site on January 13 and start their work from the following day. The tests are expected to continue for two weeks, and the collated data would then be analysed to ascertain the reason for the sinking of the ground there. Joshimath, the gateway to famous pilgrimage sites like Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib and international skiing destination Auli, is facing a major challenge due to land subsidence. "Our equipment is already on the way. On 13th January, the whole team will move to this site. And from 14th onwards, we will be there for at least two weeks to do the survey of that area. We are planning to do shallow subsurface physical mapping for water saturation and soil .

Committee formed for distributing aid to affected families in Joshimath

A 19-member committee, headed by Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana, was formed on Wednesday for the distribution of the interim package amount among the affected families in subsidence-hit Joshimath town in Uttarakhand and ascertaining the rate of a rehabilitation package. The decision to form the committee, which consists of people's representatives from the area, was taken after a meeting chaired by the DM.

CSIR proposes disaster-resilient town for people displaced from Joshimath

The Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) has proposed to develop a disaster-resilient model town to rehabilitate people displaced from the sinking Uttarakhand town of Joshimath

Uttarakhand Guv approves Bill granting 30% women's reservation in govt jobs

Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retd) has given his consent to a Bill providing 30 per cent horizontal reservation to domiciled women of the state in government jobs. Uttarakhand Public Services (Horizontal Reservation for Women) Bill, 2022 was passed by the state assembly on November 29 last year. With the governor's consent to the Bill, it has become an Act, an official said here on Wednesday. Stating the objective of the Bill at the time of its introduction in the state assembly, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had said that women of the state live in adverse conditions and their standard of living is below the women of other states. "The Bill seeks to provide 30 per cent reservation to them in government jobs in order to ensure social justice, equality of opportunity, improvement in living standards and gender equality in public planning," Dhami had said.

Demolition drive halted in Joshimath, locals angry over poor compensation

While the cracks that have appeared in the buildings of Joshimath are widening, the administration has been facing the opposition of the affected people in the demolition drive

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Locals protest over compensation ahead of Joshimath demolition drive

Renewed efforts were made by the administration on Wednesday to persuade hoteliers and locals refusing to allow the demolition of two precariously standing hotels in subsidence-hit Joshimath in Uttarakhand. A fresh round of talks was held between Secretary to the Chief Minister, Meenakshi Sundaram and the protesters who have been demanding compensation on the lines of Badrinath before the demolition exercise is undertaken. Hotels 'Malari Inn' and 'Mount View' are leaning towards each other dangerously, posing a threat to the human settlements around the structures. The Uttarakhand government had directed the razing of unstable structures on Monday, starting with these two buildings. Talking to reporters, the senior official clarified that only two hotels in Joshimath have to be dismantled and not the houses demarcated as unfit for living. "I want to clarify one thing. Only two hotels are to be dismantled. Demolition, though being used widely, is not the precise word in this context

Joshimath, surrounding areas sink by 2.5 inch every year, finds study

Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Remote Sensing used satellite images collected between July 2020 and March 2022 to find that the entire region is gradually sinking

Joshimath crisis: Cabinet Secy holds meeting, says evacuation top priority

The meeting took place even as evacuation operations in Joshimath are in full swing, with people of the town being shifted to safer places

Uttarakhand's Joshimath sinking: Demolition process of two hotels begins

The work of razing the dilapidated buildings, which have been declared unsafe to live in, has also started

Centre to set up micro-seismic observation systems at Joshimath: Minister

The Centre on Tuesday announced that it will install micro seismic observation systems at Joshimath--the gradually sinking Himalayan town in Uttarakhand. Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh made the announcement at the India-UK Workshop of Geosciences here and said the observation systems will be in place by Wednesday. Addressing the workshop, he said there was a critical need for fundamental research on the physical processes that lead to failure of the brittle layers beneath the crust and sub-crust. The minister noted that human consequences of natural disasters in India were rising rapidly and stressed on the need to devise proper mitigation strategies. Singh said the Ministry of Earth Sciences had established 37 new seismological centres in the last two years for extensive observation facilities, generating a huge database for outcome-oriented analytics. He said in the next five years, 100 more such seismological centres will be opened across the country for improving real

Joshimath: SC declines urgent hearing, says institutions working on it

The petitioner had sought the court's intervention to declare the land subsidence in Joshimath as a national disaster.

Govt declares Joshimath as landslide, susbsidence zone; here's why

Many residents have also blamed state-owned NTPC's Tapovan Vishnugad Hydro Power Project for the incident

Best of BS Opinion: Unscientific development, taxing demands, and more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

Unscientific development

Joshimath subsidence is a warning sign

Joshimath crisis: Residents refuse to leave, 'every min imp', says official

As many residents remain reluctant to leave their homes that have been declared unsafe due to land subsidence in Joshimath, Uttarakhand Chief Secretary SS Sandhu on Monday stressed that every minute is important and directed immediate evacuation of people from the affected zone. The district administration had put red cross marks on more than 200 houses in the sinking town that are unsafe for living. It asked their occupants to either shift to the temporary relief centres or rented accommodation for which each family will get assistance of Rs 4000 per month for the next six months from the state government. Cracks appeared in 68 more houses on Monday taking the number of subsidence affected homes to 678 while 27 more families were evacuated to safety, a bulletin from the Disaster Management Authority Chamoli said. So far 82 families have been shifted to safe locations in the town, it said. Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been

Govt apathy to repeated warnings reason for Joshimath crisis: Activist

Geological factors apart, the failure of successive governments to act on the warnings by experts about possible hazards in Joshimath and adjoining areas has emerged as a major reason behind the land subsidence crisis that has now grips the town, environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt said on Monday. Yet another effort has been made by the state government for a scientific study with the help of satellite imagery of the crisis in the sinking town, Bhatt, who is associated with the Chipko Movement, said. However, a detailed zonation mapping of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, warning of the lurking dangers in Joshimath, had been submitted to the state government more than two decades ago, he said. The study carried out using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) by around twelve leading scientific organisations of the country including the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) had been submitted to the state government way back in 2001, he said. The